Jazz Articles about Matthew Shipp

About Matthew Shipp

Album Review

Matthew Shipp Quartet: Sonic Fiction

Read "Sonic Fiction" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
February 4, 2018

The ESP-Disk label simultaneously has released two distinctly different leader dates from Matthew Shipp. Zero is an excellent solo piano album, and here, we have Shipp's namesake quartet on the ten-track Sonic Fiction. The shared deference and camaraderie in this free-spirited outing allows for an appreciation of even the slightest details and distinctions--elements that can easily be lost in such an open setting. The quartet is made up of familiar Shipp colleagues but not previously heard in this ...

Album Review

Matthew Shipp: Zero

by Jakob Baekgaard
February 4, 2018

Playing improvised solo piano is essentially a conundrum. Where do you start and when does a form emerge? Music begins as sounds and a composition could be the shaping of those sounds, but what about silence and the thing that comes before sound? Avantgarde-composer, John Cage, famously framed the sound of silence on his composition “4'33" to show that music is always happening, but in a very conceptual way. Pianist, improvisor and composer, Matthew Shipp, arrives at the same point ...

Album Review

Matthew Shipp: Not Bound

by Don Phipps
January 22, 2018

On Not Bound, pianist extraordinaire Matthew Shipp and his top-drawer rhythm section of Michael Bisio on bass and Whit Dickey on drums is joined by multi-instrumentalist Steve Carter in an exceptional tour de force of spontaneous music within a compositional framework. Each of the five tracks offers unique and exciting lyricism. “Soul Secrets" begins with a cool piano and flute intro that leads to a rumble. Bisio is quite active on the bass, even under the unhurried opening ...

Year in Review

Jakob Baekgaard's Best Releases of 2017

by Jakob Baekgaard
December 28, 2017

2017 was another good year for music and while there is much unrest in the world, it is a source of comfort that it is still possible to bring people together from different corners of the world to play and sing together. Here are twelve records that stood out for me. Matthew Shipp Piano Song Thirsty Ear Why? Matthew Shipp continues to define and redefine the piano with great respect for ...

Album Review

Matthew Shipp: Magnetism(s)

Read "Magnetism(s)" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
December 21, 2017

When originally issued back in 1999, pianist Matthew Shipp's Magnetism (Bleu Regard), uniting him with long standing soul mates bassist William Parker and saxophonist Rob Brown, stood as one of a series of fine dates by the pianist which included By The Law Of Music (Hat Art, 1997) and Strata (Hat Art, 1998). Like many of Shipp's albums of that period it comprises a sequence of short pieces which feature varying instrumentation. The Paris-based Rogue Art imprint has now reissued ...

Live Review

Matthew Shipp Trio at SFJAZZ

by Harry S. Pariser
December 19, 2017

Matt Shipp Trio SFJAZZ San Francisco, CA December 8, 2017 In this era, one where many of most popular musicians in the musical genre classified as “jazz" double as pop musicians, Matthew Shipp stands out. True to his craft since he moved to New York City in 1984, the 57-year-old Shipp has made innumerable recordings--solo, with a group, and as a sideman on dates with avant-garde legends David S. Ware and Roscoe Mitchell, as ...

Album Review

Toxic: Mat Walerian/Matthew Shipp/William Parker: This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People

Read "This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People" reviewed by Matthew Aquiline

by Matthew Aquiline
May 29, 2017

Polish multi-instrumentalist Mat Walerian is on the verge of reserving his seat in the pantheon of groundbreaking hornmen who recorded for the late Bernard Stollman's storied ESP-Disk' label. Not as frenetic as Frank Wright, nor as strident as Sonny Simmons, Walerian instead boasts a singular approach that binds Eastern influence and blues sensibility with fluent, legato phrasing, often reminiscent of Marion Brown's lyrical finesse. His first two live recordings for ESP--The Uppercut: Live at Okuden (2015) with Matthew Shipp and ...